Fourth of July 1975, a day I'll never
forget. My older brother Stan, my
younger brother Joe, and I, decided to
go to a local Carnival. We got the
bright idea to stop off at a local
Haunted Cemetary first. It was dusk, the
sun was setting, and we parked just
outside a narrow gravel path, lined with
tall trees on either side. It used to be
that cars could enter this gravel road,
but it's now closed off to autos. This
is the entrance to Bachelor's Grove, a
notoriously haunted graveyard south of
Chicago.

As you enter the gravel path on foot,
you can still hear the traffic, but the
eerie quality of the surroundings makes
you feel isolated. Trees line either
side of the path, and I found myself
looking for something to jump out at me
as we cautiously made our way towards
the graveyard. All I am conscious of at
this point is the noise of our feet on
the gravel and the sound of our
breathing. Did I mention that I always
wear running shoes when I visit here?
You just never know...

The path seems forever long, although
it's not. An eerie feeling invades us,
as we don't know what to expect, and our
adrenalin is in high gear. The rustling
of leaves and cracking branches to the
left and right make us jumpy as we look
towards the sounds in the trees to the
left and right of the path. I tell
myself it's only birds, or maybe a
squirrel. Finally, we see the chain link
fence to the right, the forest is to the
left and all around us. I eye what's
beyond the fence. There are gravestones
peppered throughout the trees, not in
any organized fashion. This is unlike
any modern cemetary that I've known.

We walk beyond the chain link fence and
survey the grounds. It's a real small
cemetary, smack dab in the middle of a
forest preserve. Old tombstones date as
far back as the late 1800's, and several
are toppled and some are defaced, the
work of satanists, I later found out. We
went from stone to stone and read what
was still readable. I saw one that said
"Infant Daughter" and another "Baby."

At one point, my brother Joe said,
"Look! I want to go get a sandwich from
this house." Stan and I looked past
Joe's pointing finger and saw, through
the trees, a small white house set back
in the woods, and because it was growing
darker, we also saw a glowing golden
light coming from the 2 windows. I said,
"I didn't see that house when we came
in, maybe it's the caretaker's house?"

Stan said, "Joe, we'll get something to
eat at the Carnival." We walked around a
little more, it was 8:30pm, and growing
darker so we decided to leave. We looked
around and didn't see the house anymore!
We looked and looked, turning in
circles, and just couldn't see it!

That October, I read an article in a
newspaper about Haunted spots around
Chicago. I got major chills when I read
that many people have reported seeing a
disappearing house in Bachelor's Grove!
It definitely rekindled my interest in
the paranormal, as well as making sure
that this wouldn't be my last visit to
Bachelor's Grove.

Don't believe me? For more information
on Bachelor's Grove, follow these 2
links: